


An Excercise in Teambuilding

by teal_bandit



Category: Marvel (Comics), X-Factor (Comics), X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Childhood Trauma, Depression, Gen, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Team Bonding, Teambuilding, Telepathy, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:53:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26054509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teal_bandit/pseuds/teal_bandit
Summary: When the X-Factor team learns about Daken's past, how will that change how they see him?
Relationships: Jean-Paul Beaubier/Kyle Jinadu
Comments: 11
Kudos: 30





	An Excercise in Teambuilding

_ Mongrel! Son, what have you done? Monster. Animal. I do love you, Daken. Boy. Come here. Everything I have will be yours. Traitor! Selfish. Weak. You're a disappointment just like your father. Kid… Daken! Should have been there. Bastard. _

Mocking laughter from children. A hard glare from a mother. Blood pouring through hands. A gunshot. A hand on a shoulder, nails dragging through hair. Bruising muscles and broken bones. Sleep deprivation. Black eyes. Shame. Love. Tearing flesh and collapsing airways as a hard cock forces into a developing body. Beatings. Organ failure. Hatred. Anger. Guns, knives, grenades. A hand cupping a still-soft cheek. More sex, forcing and tearing through a body that's too small, too small. Lies. Manipulation. Anger. Nails digging into a photo. Blood. Bodies. Revenge. Punishment. Sex, easier now. Everything comes easier now--the killing, the blood smell, the sharp crack of bone, the pain. Numb the pain. Numb the pain. Drugs. Alcohol. Blood. Sex. Betrayal. Pity. Love. Death.

Daken can feel the red behind his eyes receding as he neutralizes their telepathic threat. He hears Trevor throwing up and looks behind him. Northstar and Aurora are gone, and Rachel and David are looking at him with horror. Fine. Let them. Lorna is shaking, checking on their young teammate, emptying his stomach onto the ground. Daken frowns. "Let's… go back."

*******

The door slams open, a rush of wind enters the room and Kyle tilts his head. A second rush of wind enters the room. Jeanne-Marie's bedroom door shuts. Kyle looks at the blur moving around the room.

"Jean-Paul? Hey, are you okay," he asks, stepping closer to where the blur of his husband seems to have settled, pacing the floor.

Jean-Paul's answer is far too quick to be heard clearly. The tone of his voice jumbles together with half-understood words and scoffs. Kyle steps closer, asking again.

"Stay back, Kyle, and don't touch me," comes the reply, forcibly slowed, but still rushed. 

Kyle frowns, worried. "But, Jean-Paul, you're--"

"Nightmare. A damned nightmare. How has he even--don't touch me!" He moves back, anger and panic on his face as he feels his heart pounding clear down to the bottom of his ribs. He's going to be sick. His breathing speeds up, his whole body shaking.

Kyle slowly reaches to touch his shoulder, moving his hand up to his husband's blanched cheek. "Honey, what happened?"

Jean-Paul's face is numb from breathing too fast. He can't feel the tear that slides down, wetting the side of Kyle's thumb. He can't feel the others falling as his husband--his anchor--cups his face with both hands. "Oh,  _ mon amour _ … oh God…."

Kyle braces as Jean-Paul wraps his arms around his neck, crying. He can feel his shoulders shaking with sobs as he holds his husband, more worried now than before. He hears a portal open outside and gently guides his husband to their bedroom. He knows Jean-Paul wouldn't want them to see him like this, leader or not. Several minutes later, Lorna's voice comes, saying that they're going to have a team meeting in half an hour.

*******

"Alright," Daken sighs, crossing his arms, glancing up at his teammates. "Who's first?"

"I am," Kyle speaks up, a hard look on his face. In all that time, Jean-Paul wouldn't tell him what happened.  _ Couldn't _ tell him. "What in the hell--"

"Kyle,  _ cherie _ , please," Jean-Paul rushes, placing a thin hand on his chest. "I will…. I will explain later, we just--"

"Jean-Paul, you could barely speak in a full sentence when you got back," Kyle frowns. "Whatever happened, if this is because of him--"

"It  _ is _ my fault. Sorry," Daken looks at him, his expression devoid of emotion as he waves his apology. 

Kyle can feel his heart drop. He starts to move toward him, but his husband stops him, whispering a plead in his ear, then kissing his lips softly. The man sighs, looking sternly at Daken, and takes a seat.

"Anyway, who's next," the man standing, leaning against the counter, asks, his eyes glassed over.

"What…. What happened to that baby…" Jeanne-Marie asks softly, hugging herself.

"Jun-chan? I took him to Hokkaido," Daken sighs, looking at the floor on one side. "Took a couple of days, but I got there and dropped him off. I didn't find him again until years later, but… they named him Hidaka. He's a technical advisor for some small accounting bureau in Chiba now… anything else?"

Jeanne-Marie looks relieved to hear the answer. She had prayed that the child had been safe. The others seem hesitant to ask him anything--it still feels so close…

"How are you," Jean-Paul finally asks, holding Kyle's hand. "I mean… after that, I… I know you're trying. But how are you? You felt that attack, too, right? I imagine it… must have been difficult for you."

"Right now," Daken scoffs, rolling his eyes and shaking his head, giving a wry smile. "I'm fine. Irritated, but fine… all that shit you saw happened years ago."

"Felt," Rachel clarifies, "we… we felt it, too." She runs her hand over her head, mussing her hair, and finding herself missing it being shorter.

"Felt what," Kyle asks, a worried frown on his face for the way Rachel sighs and the way Trevor shudders.

Daken half-scoffs, laying his head back slightly before raising it again. "We got hit by a telepath who apparently unloaded all of my piece-of-shit life onto them. I didn't know you all had to fucking  _ feel _ it, too."

"Well, it's not like anyone here hasn't dealt with trauma before in some capacity," David sighs, folding his hands together. "I can talk with anyone here who needs help dealing with the PTSD…. And, Dak--Akihiro. I think you should probably come talk to me, too. I kind of picked up on a lot of psychiatry when I was at the school; I really think it would help you cope better."

"I cope fine," Daken raises an eyebrow, a scowl passing over his features for a fraction of a second.

"You don't," Lorna crosses her arms, looking at him. "I mean, you cope, but it's not good…"

"How--how did you… I mean, when he… the first time," Trevor asks, holding his head in his hands, sniffling. "How did you even… how did you cope with that?"

"Well, I doubt you'd call it coping," Daken shakes his head, frowning. "I spent the next 24 hours alternating between crying and puking. He sent me to Canada for a while after that, so…" His eyes glaze over as he trails off the sentence. He shakes his head to clear it.

"He… he looked like Logan," Jean-Paul shakes his head. "Almost  _ just _ like him… I knew of him from Logan speaking of him in Alpha Flight, but I had no idea…."

"Yeah, it's …. Complicated. Just do me a favor, alright, and don't tell  _ him _ about any of this… I don't need him having something else to hold over my head or to pity me for," Daken scowls, clenching his jaw unconsciously. 

The group quietly, but simultaneously agrees--there's no way they're talking with anyone else about this.

"Did you…. Did you really love him," Jeanne-Marie asks, her eyebrows knitted.

"Romulus? I… I suppose, at one time. He accepted my violence and saved me… what I did was unforgivable, and being the son of an American soldier, if I had stayed there… well, I would have died, almost certainly." He chuckles darkly, "not that that wouldn't have been better for a lot of people."

"Please don't say that,  _ merci _ ," Jeanne-Marie shakes her head, looking at him through watery eyes. "I know that it's easy to believe that way… but there are others who need you here. Who truly love you. 

Jean-Paul sighs, looking at his sister--his penitent twin who had the life sucked from her early. If anyone here could even remotely understand how Daken had lived through his life, it's her. And he hates that. 

"I… try. I do," Daken sighs, "and .. well, Laura and Gabby help. I mean, Laura is… you know. But Gabby is still here, and she…"

"We get it," Lorna nods, looking at him. There's an understanding there that Daken isn't used to seeing. "We've all got those people… the reasons we try to stay strong, even if it isn't easy."

Daken looks at them. For these past weeks, he's been letting them treat him like a dog--like he's used to--making whatever cruel and pernicious comments whenever they want at his expense because he's dealt with worse from a young age… but this--the sympathy and the fear and anger, not towards him, but  _ for _ him--the understanding and the concern they're showing, it feels foreign coming from anyone other than his sisters. Even his own father, who doesn't even know the first percent of what Romulus put him through, can only look at him with guilt and pity, when it isn't anger or fear. It leaves him speechless.

Northstar sighs, whispering to his husband that he can tell him about what they saw before bed. He stands and walks to Daken, to  _ Akihiro _ , and shakes his hand, clasping high on his forearm with the other. " _ Je suis désolé _ . I apologize," he sighs, nodding to him slightly, "I've made assumptions about you--we all have. You're genuinely trying to change, and… I think we can all trust that a little better, after today. If there is anyone we should be able to depend on, it's our team, and you, Akihiro, you can depend on us."

Daken can smell the sincerity on him, almost to a nauseating degree. It softens his eyes. For him, it's still far too soon to drop his guard, but he's gone alone or nearly alone for so long… maybe he could stand to distribute a little of the weight. He bows from the waist, raising up and pressing Jean-Paul's hand.

" _ Arigato gozaimasu _ . I'll try to be someone to depend on as well…"

**Author's Note:**

> My most sincere apologies to anyone who speaks Canadian French or Japanese, as I probably messed things up horribly  
> \--  
> Also, I took a lot of liberties here with what Romulus actually did to Daken, as it's never been explored extensively in the comics. Basically, my though process was: we know it was bad, so make it BAD.  
> \--  
> Also also, I know I had a field day with the tags, but if I missed anything please let me know, and I will update it.


End file.
